ST. PAUL &045; Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Tuesday backed up his call to redefine government with a $28.1 billion budget plan that would reshuffle programs for the needy, freeze public employee pay and make colleges and local governments less dependent on state aid.

The budget proposal serves two purposes: to lay out a vision for funding government programs over the next two years while also ridding the state of a $4.2 billion projected deficit.

The Republican governor said controlling state spending would only come through sacrifice and that all Minnesotans will feel the budget pinch in some way.

But, he added, &uot;We are not on the ropes. We are not doomed or destined to fail.&uot; Prudent decisions now, he said, would translate into a healthy state down the road.

Pawlenty committed himself to no tax increases during his gubernatorial campaign and stood by that pledge even after a new economic forecast suggested the deficit was nearly double what was expected. He said the deficit offered a chance to rethink the way Minnesota government is funded.

Many interest groups weren’t immediately persuaded that the governor’s plan was the best one.

Marcia Avner of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits said the budget problem was &uot;simply too big&uot; to address only through cuts and shifts without any accompanying tax increases.

&uot;Those people who were on the margins of poverty are going to be hurt significantly,&uot; she said.

Overall, criminal justice would get a slight bump in spending as would K-12 education. But the impact on individual districts will vary and some may see decreases.

Ken Petersen, chairman of the Albert Lea School Board, said he hasn’t gotten down to the fine print to see where the district would actually stand.

&uot;It really depends on how the formula (for adjusting district funding) will change,&uot; he said. &uot;But from the rhetoric that has been provided recently by the governor I was glad to see an increase. However, it is below what we had planned for in our budget.&uot;

The board had been planning on a 2.5 percent increase, and the governor’s plan calls for a 2.2

percent increase in per-student funding. The details of how the plan works with different sorts of funding are still forthcoming.

Unlike in the past, the administration didn’t release hard copies of the budget’s details Tuesday, making it difficult to determine the effects on specific programs.

But nearly everything takes a hit.

Money to local governments would fall about 22 percent, and Pawlenty is recommending local levy limits and reverse referendum, a mechanism for voters to overturn local tax increases.

Albert Lea City Manager Paul Sparks said he isn’t sure how the plan will affect the city, but warned that there are hard times ahead if a state aid cut that size passes the legislature.

More than 55 percent of the city’s funding comes from local government aid (LGA). To cut as the governor has planned would leave the city with little choice but to cut almost all the money for parks and recreation, and cuts could leak over to fire and police.

Sparks said that taking away 22 percent, as well as putting caps on local levy limits, will give cities little breathing room. Two years ago the state took away $1 million from the levy limit and instead gave the cities that money in LGA, according to Sparks.

&uot;If they give back what they took away from us in levy options, then the cuts won’t be draconian,&uot; Sparks said.

He said the city could use some of its reserves to get through the difficult times, but also said that maintaining reserves is very important in keeping a security blanket for the city.

Higher education would be cut by 9 percent under Pawlenty’s plan (with a recommendation that tuition couldn’t go up more than 15 percent over two years) and most other state agencies would see an average cut of 15 percent.

Health and human services spending would be pared primarily by merging two of the state’s largest health insurance programs. General Assistance Medical Care, which serves about 30,000 childless adults, would be merged with MinnesotaCare, a program used by about 144,000 lower-income working people. Fewer people would be eligible for MinnesotaCare, and premiums and copayments would be increased.

Pawlenty called health spending &uot;the public policy sumo wrestler&uot; that must be tackled. &uot;It is consuming us at a rate and scope that we cannot sustain,&uot; he said.

&uot;It looks to me like he’s inflicting a lot of pain potentially on vulnerable Minnesotans. That’s not the Minnesota I grew up with,&uot; said Wayne Cox, executive director of the labor-leaning Minnesota Citizens for Tax Justice.

Sen. Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin, said he is going to travel around his district in the next few weeks to get input from constituents on their thoughts about the budget.

&uot;This is their budget,&uot; he said.

Sparks said he was disappointed with the large proposed cut in LGA.

&uot;(Pawlenty) is just shifting the burden back onto the cities,&uot; he said.

Sparks complimented the governor on the increases in per-student funding for K-12 education, but worried about higher-education cuts.

&uot;We shouldn’t be balancing a budget on the backs of those kids,&uot; he said.

Rep. Dan Dorman, R-Albert Lea, said the plan has been a long time coming.

&uot;We certainly saw the framework developing over the past few months,&uot; he said. &uot;It’s a very good road map, a starting point.&uot;

Dorman said he felt the issues of K-12 education, LGA and ethanol subsidy cuts would be his major points of interest in helping the Republican caucus to make a proposal.

Ethanol subsidies were cut in half, according to Dorman, from 20 cents to 10 cents per gallon. Dorman said he is working on an alternative plan, which should be done by the end of the week.

The increases in K-12 education were important to Dorman, he said.

&uot;Obviously this is an area we need to protect,&uot; he said. As to the specific nature of the increases for Albert Lea, Dorman was unsure. But he said it was safe to say that no district would see decreases.

&uot;When this is all said and done, I think we’ll have a lot of proposals on the table,&uot; Dorman said.

Prisons are another area where Pawlenty would save money &045; by allowing double bunking in some rooms at two of the state’s three highest security facilities: Stillwater and St. Cloud.

And he’s recommending a two-year wage freeze for public employees at all levels.

Peter Benner, executive director of Council 6 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said such a freeze wouldn’t do anything to solve the immediate shortfall, but he acknowledged that down the line it might translate into slightly fewer layoffs.

&uot;There are going to be layoffs no matter what,&uot; Benner said.

The governor also built a $500 million reserve to buffer against future downturns in the economy.

Pawlenty said he expects groups across the state to criticize his budget over the next few weeks and he said some will suggest raising taxes on things like cigarettes, beer and clothing. But raising those taxes would disproportionately affect low-income Minnesotans by taking a higher percentage of their incomes, he said.

Over the next month, Senate DFL members will hold more than 60 meetings across the state to gauge public sentiment on the Pawlenty plan.